Kenneth Colley
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Kenneth Colley (7 December 1937 — 30 June 2025) was an English actor. A long-time character actor, he came to wider prominence through his role as Admiral Piett in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Colley was born in Manchester. He played Jesus (very briefly indeed) in Life of Brian (1979), having also appeared in the earlier Python-related production Ripping Yarns episode "The Testing of Eric Olthwaite" alongside Michael Palin. As a Shakespearean actor, he played the Duke of Vienna in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Measure for Measure (also 1979). Colley also held an important role in the Clint Eastwood film Firefox, as a Soviet Colonel tasked with the protection of the Firefox and its secrets. Colley portrayed SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel in the World War II drama War and Remembrance. His character was charged with hiding the evidence of the Holocaust, and putting dead victims through "Economic Processing". According to comments Terry Gilliam (who directed him in Jabberwocky and co-starred with him in Life of Brian) made in the DVD audio commentaries for both films, Colley is a terrible stutterer in real life. When he had a role in a film, however, he could recite the lines perfectly. Stuttering is a character trait, however, in his role as the "Accordion Man" in the BBC television drama Pennies from Heaven (1978). He has also recently starred in BBC's HolbyBlue as a drunk and violent father, grandfather and father-in-law. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kenneth Colley, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Credits
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
as Admiral Piett
Return of the Jedi (1983)
as Admiral Piett
Life of Brian (1979)
as Jesus
Firefox (1982)
as Colonel Kontarsky
The Devils (1971)
as Legrand
The Whistle Blower (1986)
as Bill Pickett
Juggernaut (1974)
as Detective Brown
Jabberwocky (1977)
as 1st Fanatic
Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973)
as Boldt
Brassed Off (1996)
as Greasley
La Vie de Bohème (1992)
as Street Sweeper
Mahler (1974)
as Krenek
The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
as Capt. Hirsch
LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out (2012)
as Admiral Piett (voice)
The Boy Friend (1971)
as King in fantasy sequence (uncredited)
I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)
as The Killer
The Blood Beast Terror (1968)
as James
Casanova (1987)
as Le Duc
How I Won the War (1967)
as 2nd Replacement
Performance. (1970)
as Tony Farrell
Les Misérables (1978)
as Police Prefect
The Plot to Kill Hitler (1990)
as Wilhelm Keitel
Solomon & Sheba (1995)
as Nathan
The Chester Mystery Plays (1976)
Actor
The Music Lovers (1971)
as Modeste Tchaikovsky
Greetings (2007)
as Ken
The Testing of Eric Olthwaite (1977)
as Robber
Like Father Like Son (2005)
as Rawsthorne
Lisztomania (1975)
as Frederic Chopin
The Rainbow (1989)
as Mr. Brunt
The Last Island (1990)
as Nick
One Bummer News Day (1978)
as Frank Benyon
A Summer Story (1988)
as Jim
Hold Back the Night (1999)
as Uncle Bob
The Triple Echo (1972)
as Provo Corporal
Dance of the Seven Veils (1970)
Actor
Three Days in Szczecin (1976)
as Edmund Bałuka
Shadow Run (1998)
as Larcombe
The Jokers (1967)
as De Winter
Unnatural Causes (1993)
as Inspector Gerry Reckless
The Secret Life of Arnold Bax (1992)
as John Ireland
Prisoner of Honor (1991)
as Capt. Dreyfus
Macbeth (1966)
as Macbeth's servant
Kremlin Farewell (1990)
as Sergej
Robert Rylands' Last Journey (1996)
as Archdale
Measure for Measure (1979)
as Duke Vincentio
A Master of the Marionettes (1989)
as Inspector Tennyson
Flame (1975)
as Tony Devlin
Return to Waterloo (1984)
as The Traveller
Giro City (1982)
as Martin
Dan Hawk Psychic Detective (2025)
as Thaddeus Moncrief
Come the Revolution (1977)
as Bruce Tetley
The Danedyke Mystery (1979)
as The Major
Who Pays? (1968)
as Corbett
Scar Tissue (2013)
as Weaver
Three Clear Sundays (1965)
as Nick
Cause of Death (1968)
as Dr. Emil Justin
Seventy Deadly Pills (1963)
as Covent Garden porter